GEORG ELBEN

In her video VANISHING POINT Janet Biggs joins two totally different worlds which intrude on one another with hard cuts: A motor cyclist’s attempt on the world speed record in a shimmering white salt desert is confronted with a scene showing a gospel choir in bright violet robes. On the acoustic level a triad of sounds rules: The silence of the desert is in sharp contrast to the roar of the engine at full throttle – and this is faced with the choir singing ecstatically. These discordant settings and moods generate a video which, with its exceptional contrasts, convincingly asserts the diversity of life.

The Videonale in Bonn has grown into one of the world’s important institutions and has been a contributor to the history of video art. The consequent expansion of the festival format to an exhibition lasting several weeks, whose reception-friendly design made not only the specialist audience, but also those generally interested in art aware of the specific qualities of video is a lasting achievement. For me, the Videonale was both a challenge and an opportunity. With its biennial rhythm and the many Videonale on Tour journeys to Peru, India, Spain, Cyprus, Bosnia, Ukraine, Scotland, Poland and finally a large exhibition in the Taiwan National Museum, it structured ten years of my life.